Stay World of Fatecraft
by Delusional Fishies
Summary: The Throne of Heroes has had a slight bug. Now others have to face the consequences, namely, the participants of the Fifth Holy Grail Wars of Fuyuki City.
1. Chapter 1

Notes: Just throwing some feelers out there to see if people would like to see more of this.

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><p><strong>Fatecraft<strong>

She closed her eyes, the songs of the distant utopia whispering sweet bliss into her ears. She was going back, back to the beginning, when she had made the promise, the contract, which binds her to her infinite battle. But at least she would forever remember this round of this war. It was a good fight, she thought, so tiredly. She wanted to close her eyes forever and sleep. Perhaps then, she would finally dream of the peace she so lonely sought…

…But such a happy ending was not to be, not for the King Arturia Pendragon of Britannia and Camelot!

Her body formed once again, unlike the magical construct which tied her spirit to the mortal planes before. Now, she felt… digital. Instantly, strange information flowed into her mind, but she could not comprehend it. It was strange. She looked around, scanning her new surroundings.

She was in front of an abbey of marble stones, surrounded by trees taller and thicker than any that she had ever seen before. Outside of the abbey was a small caravan of merchants and an old soldier, who walked up to her.

_This is a game, this is a game, this is a game…!_

The data made no sense. What was a game? Was she tied to yet another Holy Grail War so quickly? This did not feel like one at all! Outrageous!

_Play the game, play the game, play the game…!_

"Ah, welcome young Paladin!" The old soldier walked up to her. She realized that he was not really old, with such a strong, muscled body. He only appeared so because of his graying hair. Actually, he did not really have any _hair_, just a cartoon-like, gray mustache. "Welcome to Northshire Abbey, home of the Brotherhood of Northshire."

"I—" Arturia began, confused by what was happening, but the old soldier talked again.

"Hey, citizen!" He saluted her, causing Arturia to frown in further confusion. "You look like a stout one. We, guards, are spread a little thin out here, and I could use your help…"

Again, before Arturia could even make a gesture, he took out a stack of papers. Arturia squinted and noted that all the old parchment he had in his hands were blank.

"So, you're the new recruit from Stormwind, eh? I'm Marshal McBride, commander of this garrison. Glad to have you on board," the old soldier looked down at his papers again. "Arturia Pendragon. It is Arturia Pendragon, right?" Without bothering to look up at Arturia, he continued, "You've arrived just in time. The Defias Bandits have been plaguing the outskirts of the Abbey's farmland. My soldiers are doing what they can to push them back, but I fear they will be overwhelmed soon."

He grabbed Arturia's shoulders and shook her roughly. "Head northwest into the forest and kill the attacking Defias Bandits! Help my soldiers!"

After that, he reset his stance back to how he was before Arturia approached him. Her frown deepened. What was a game?

"Ah, welcome young Warrior!" The old soldier walked past her, to a blue-clad, blue-haired man who just _appeared out of nowhere_. "Welcome to Northshire Abbey, home of the Brotherhood of Northshire."

"Wa—What's going on here?" The man shouted.

Arturia studied the man closely, resting a hand on her sword. He did not seem hostile, but where did she see him before? "Servant Lancer!" She shouted when she realized who it was, "For what purpose are you doing here?"

The man turned to her, "Well, well, if it isn't the Servant Saber!" He smirked, "I'm not obligated by any pussies to keep myself hidden anymore, so let's fight! I'm Cu Chulain! Servant Saber, get ready to taste the hard thrusts of my Gae Bolge!"

"I shall face your challenge head on," Arturia narrowed her eyes at her enemy. Her invisible sword within her hands shimmered as the winds around it gathered and bellowed in response to the Lancer's challenge.

Suddenly, a flag dropped out of the sky between them and a voice whispered into her head again, this time much louder, "**Duel will begin in 3… 2… 1…**"

It was then, that Arturia realized that everyone, including Lancer, or Cu Chulain, had a bright green aura around them. But the moment this 'duel' began, his aura changed to a blood-red color.

Before they could begin their duel, another interruption appeared!

From the skies fell a red-clad, black armored man, who crashed into some of the wares of the merchants', breaking some furniture. He groaned and pushed his white mop of hair back. It was her noble ally, the Archer, who had sacrificed his life to stall the legendary Heracles!

"Servant Archer?" She asked, questioningly, noticing from the corners of her eyes that Lan—er, Cu Chulain had backed up into a **Defensive Stance** and his eyes were swerving between Archer and herself.

Archer rolled his eyes, "Call me EMIYA. I'm sure you figured it out already."

"I, I guessed, but…" Saber muttered, feeling hurt by his crass attitude.

"I… I should not be here," EMIYA growled, curling into a fetal position and ignoring Arturia. "I'm not here, I'm not here, I'm not here…" He muttered as he rocked back and forth.

"Ah, welcome young Rogue!" The old soldier walked up to EMIYA, who ignored him, and said, "Welcome to Northshire Abbey, home of the Brotherhood of Northshire."

"I am not here, I cannot be here…!" EMIYA muttered as he kept rocking himself. Arturia almost sputtered when she saw tears threaten to leak out of the Archer's eyes.

"Enough! We must clash our weapons and display our flaming spirits like real men!" Cu Chulain shouted, twirling his hard, long spear in one hand as he charged at Arturia.

Arturia blinked. "I'm a woman."

Cu Chulain tripped and planted his face into the dirt, before his body skidded to the large, dueling flag and his head collided with its pole. Shakily, he stood up and righted himself into a **Battle Stance** and stared incredulously at Arturia. "Seriously?" He asked, "I thought you were just a midget or something…"

"Son of the Suns," Arturia cut him off coldly, "Dare you have an insult you would say it to my face?"

"Ah-ha! Let's rumble!" He charged again.

But once again, he was interrupted. This time, a giant fell out of the sky.

"Ah, welcome young Warrior! Welcome to Northshire Abbey, home of the Brotherhood of Northshire." The old man walked to the giant, adamantine form of the Servant Berserker, Heracles.

Heracles stood up and shook Marshal Mc Bride's hand, saying in a smooth tone, "Thank you, my good man, and just call me Kevin. Kevin Sorbo."

"Servant Heracles?" Arturia asked incredulously. How many Heroic Spirits were actually here?

"Ah, King Pendragon," Heracles nodded to Arturia. He strolled towards their duel, walking between them with his hands on his hips. "Now that I am no longer under the influence of the Mad Enhancement, I can properly congratulate you on your splendid victory."

Arturia just stared, unsure of what to say.

Luckily for her, she did not have to say anything, as yet another Heroic Spirit flashed into appearance. It was the hooded Servant, Caster. With a dramatic wail, she placed a hand on her head and cried, "Oh, oh, where is my Souichirou-sama? Why must the Fates be so cruel?"

"Ah, welcome young Mage! Welcome to Northshire Abbey, home of the Brotherhood of Northshire." Arturia knew by now that were was something seriously wrong here, especially with the Marshal. But before she could contemplate what was happening, several other Heroic Spirits also came out of the wood works. The old Marshal called out quickly, almost like an echo for Arturia to hear him three times.

"Ah, welcome young Hunter! Welcome to Northshire Abbey, home of the Brotherhood of Northshire. Ah, welcome young Rogue! Welcome to Northshire Abbey, home of the Brotherhood of Northshire. Ah, welcome young Hunter! Welcome to Northshire Abbey, home of the Brotherhood of Northshire."

The blindfolded Rider, Medusa appeared beside a shadow which disappeared almost instantly and the gold-clad figure of the King of Heroes.

Even before anyone could say anything, Arturia slapped a gauntlet-clad palm against her forehead. She felt a migraine coming on, and she could do nothing about it. "T-This… is going to be one of _those_ centuries, isn't it, World? Why are you doing this to me?"


	2. Chapter 2

Notes: There are a lot of assholes out there. You can blame them for the lack of The Third Magic.

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><p><strong>Fatecraft<strong>

It was hell. It had to be hell. It was never ending drudgery, going on forever. No matter how many she killed, there were always more. These scoundrels occupied the farm hold of the Northshire? Then she shall save them, as a knight would but this… this…

"How do they keep coming back?" She muttered under her breath as her sword stabbed into yet another Defias Bandit, cutting in half.

The Servant of the Bow jogged up to Arturia, his perpetual frown decidedly upon her. "Oh? Saber? Why are you still here?" He asked.

"I… Why are you not here? The people of Northshire Abbey need our help destroying the bandits who continually pillage their crops!" She shouted, outraged by his callous behavior. Did he not care for the people at all? Had he fallen so far from his ideals?

EMIYA scratched his head, his frown increasing. "What are you talking about, Saber? You only need to kill ten of them. Ha, look at you, still fighting when you have zero mana, what are you doing?"

"Wha—?"

"Oh, I get it!" EMIYA slapped a fist against his palm mockingly. "You didn't read the quest log!"

"I… quest log?"

"Press Q," EMIYA said, rolling his eyes. "Just do it. Think it."

"Kuu? What Kuee?" Arturia asked in confusion, her earlier outrage forgotten.

EMIYA sighed. He hated it when Saber gave him that doe-eyed look, inquiring something of him. It usually ended up with him giving up the answer back when he was alive, and he supposed this was no different. "Look, Saber. These guys, they _respawn_, that means they are never ending, always coming back after a certain amount of time. For quests."

"For quests? Wha—!"

"_Play the game_," EMIYA hissed at her before turning his back on her. "You're already level 6 from killing all of these mobs; you can go to Elwynn Forest now. Go, look, Gilgamesh is going that way too, just follow him."

Confused and dazed, Arturia followed the golden armored man, who was shouting strange commands to… a group of midgets?

"Alright! Let's get this raid group set up already! MONGRELS!" Gilgamesh shouted to his forty midgets.

The midgets all had high, squeaky voices. Each of the males of their… race, Arturia hesitated to call it… looked so ugly. Their voiced grated on her nerves even though she had just gotten there. The females were little better. She saw Medusa following them too.

"Oh, hello," Medusa waved at Arturia. "Are you the healer?"

"Healer?" Arturia cocked her head, not quiet comprehending.

"Well, look," Medusa waved at the midgets that had all gathered around Gilgamesh, and followed him down the dirt road towards a small town made up of only a few houses. "Gilgamesh has almost 40 gnomes. That's four tens. And that's terrible. They are all warriors."

"Warriors are noble fighters of any army," Arturia protested. "Why is that terrible?"

Medusa looked over at Arturia as if she was stupid. "Because they aren't healers, obviously." She rolled her eyes at Arturia.

Up in the front, Gilgamesh roared to his followers, "Mongrels! The time is now! We shall conquer… _HOGGER!_"

"Yeah!"

"Woo-hoo!"

"You da man, Gil!"

"I want your children, Lord Gilgamesh!"

Gilgamesh ran a golden armored hand through his wonderfully groomed golden hair and let out a golden sigh, "I apologize nameless filthy groupie, but I reserve myself only for my Saber!" Here, he looked directly at Arturia and gave her a thumbs up and wide smile. His teeth shone in the sunlight as if they were gold.

Arturia turned away from him and slapped her palm against her face. "Why…?"

"For the lulz, of course," Medusa replied, "Honestly, Saber, you're quite slow today. Did you not eat enough?"

A loud growl came from beneath Arturia's armor just as that question was asked. Embarrassed, Arturia turned away from Medusa and blushed. "I… I may have skipped a…"

"There's a vendor that sells food in the Inn. Here's a few coppers, get yourself something…"

"R-Rider…" Arturia clutched onto the few copper pieces in her hands. Her heart was truly touched by Medusa's generous display. She knew Medusa was not rich like Gilgamesh, making it doubly generous even!

After a while, Arturia was shanghaied into following Gilgamesh's group again. They traveled a long distance that covered enough distance that they passed an outpost filled with armored soldiers. Arturia did not spare much time with the scenery, because most of it looked just like what it looked like inside of Northshire Abbey.

It was strange, Arturia thought, because the so-called monster Hogger was _right there_. Yet not a single one of these guards moved to help?

She scoffed. Fine, it will be up to her to help these 'gnomes' defeat the terrible beast.

"Fly, Mongrels!" Gilgamesh shouted, pointing at the strange creature, tossing one of the gnomes at it. It batted the gnome away, causing him to die instantly. It looked like a crossbreed between a hyena and a man to Arturia, but it was time for battle. Words are useless.

She followed as the stream of gnomes charged at Hogger.

But then, one of the gnomes near her shouted, "Oh noes! Adds! Adds aggro!"

Arturia frowned and tried to ask the Throne what exactly did this midget ask, but all that the Throne came back with was garbled text. She couldn't make sense of it, but then it became obvious.

More of the devious Hogger's allies, similar hyena-humanoids jumped out of the wood works, slaughtering the puny, tiny midgets. Arturia noticed that there were many other of these hyena-men, but they were all just standing around their campfires, not moving or even turning towards her or the crowd of gnomes.

"To be underestimated so greatly," she muttered to herself as she charged, "Is a great pity!" She slashed at Hogger, thinking that if she defeated their leader, then the hyena-men will be routed.

Instead, the monstrous Hogger shrugged off her attack and laughed at her with only the sounds of screaming and screeching that a hyena could. He drew back his flail and flung—

Arturia blinked. Why was everything in black and white?

She turned around and saw an angelic spirit floating above her. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Instead, the creature said to her, inside her mind, "You journey is not yet over, hero. Do you wish to reclaim your body or be resurrected here?"

"H-how?" Arturia wondered, "How did I… erk, did I just died?"

She looked down and noticed that indeed, she was translucent and ghost like. In fact, the whole world was ghost like. But then she was shaken out of her reverie by Medusa's voice.

It sounded like a _whisper_ that went into her mind, when Medusa said to Arturia, "You died already? Hurry up and get back here, we need more heals!"

Arturia frowned, but followed the trail that she had followed the first time to where the battle was taking place. As soon as she was close enough, something within her asked if she wanted to rejoin this battle.

"Of course!" She roared like a lion, as the world around her once more gained colored, and she charged at the dastardly Hogger with renewed vigor! "Take this—erk!"

Arturia blinked. How did she turn back into a ghost… again?


End file.
